The Birdman fleet mainly consists of cloakable ships in various sizes, ranging from scouts and fairly strong cruisers to the only cloakable battleship in the Planets universe. Most ship designs of the Empire of the Birds rely on stealth and and a long range instead of pure firepower and often avoid a direct fight with races that own larger battleships and carriers. Instead they are specialists in guerilla warfare and surprise attacks. The Empire if the Bird’s special mission is called ‘Super Spy’ which allows to find out enemy friendly codes and override them while staying cloaked. This way the Bird fleet secretly can sabotage enemy planets or find a safe way through hostile minefields. Bird ships equipped with a cloaking device are immune to Loki Class decloaking ships but can be detected by Glory Devices. The two larger cloakers of the Empire of the Birds, the famous Resolute Class Battlecruiser and the feared Dark Wing Class Battleship are equipped with an advanced cloaking device that allows them to stay hidden in Ion Storms and that does not require fuel to keep the ship under cloak.
The Empire of the Birds sometimes use their cloaking ships to launch an early attack during the opening phase of the game before the first large carriers are built. They often stay hidden over a planet and wait patiently for the right prey to pass by which then is towed and destroyed without a prior warning sign. When fighting carrier races they tend to focus on sabotaging the enemy’s economic backbone and only engage the large carriers when it is absolutely necessary.

In campaign games the Empire of the Birds can choose between upgrades of existing ships such as the Medium Transport or ships that become more economic to build. Especially with the Bright Heart Class Light Destroyer and the Skyfire Class Heavy Cruiser the Bird fleet gains two light but strong and versatile ships, while the heavier versions of the Deth Specula add additional firepower in the heavier mid range. Among the upgrades in versatility and firepower the Empire of the Birds can also research and use two very special ships: The Red Wind Storm-Carrier secretly adds 2 Fighter bays to any fighting carrier in the fleet, and the Enlighten Class Research Vessel adds a genuine economic advantage to the Empire of the Birds: The possibility to create higher tax incomes by improving the natives’ government form.